Lerøy positive despite lower Q2 operational profit

The Lerøy Seafood Group, part owners of Scottish Sea Farms, produced a second quarter operational profit of NOK 906m (£66m), NOK 44m (£3.2m) lower than a year ago.

However, the company said there had been good biological improvements during the period, with promising results from shielding technology.

As with SalMar yesterday, Lerøy reported an improvement in earnings and biological performance at Scottish Sea Farms (SSF).

The company estimates that its salmon and trout harvest this year will be around 193,000 tonnes, including joint ventures such as SSF.

The operational EBIT from the farming division was NOK 777m (£56.7m).

Lerøy, which employs 6,000 people, also owns one of Norway’s largest deep sea trawler fleets and there was a significant fall in earnings from this division, mainly due to lower catch quotas.

Leroy CEO Henning Beltestad

CEO Henning Beltestad said today: “Lerøy has implemented a number of improvement measures in recent years, and these are gradually showing results.

“Biological development in farming in Q2 and year to date in 2024 has been good. “

Downstream operations/VAPS&D continue to develop positively, while earnings for the Wild Catch segment were impacted by a significant reduction in quotas and hence the operating basis.

“This development resulted in revenue for the quarter of NOK 7,649m (£558m), which is on par with the same period of last year.”

He added: “After an extremely challenging 2023, it is pleasing to see Norskott Havbruk [Scottish Sea Farms] performing strongly, both operationally and financially.

“The profit contribution from associates and joint ventures before fair value adjustment related to biological assets was NOK 52m (£3.8m) in Q2 2024, against (a loss of) NOK -65m (£4.7m) in Q2 2023.

“The equivalent first-half figures show an improvement from (minus) NOK -70m (£5.1m) in H1 2023 to NOK 86m (£6.2m) in H1 2024.

The company is recommending a dividend of NOK 2.5 per share.